Emmerdale star Ryan Hawley has teased details of the upcoming Christmas Day episode of the soap which will see Robert Sugden as the main focus as he goes on a bizarre journey through various false realities in order to reflect on his actions.

The character has had a turbulent year and by the point of the Christmas episode, he has hit rock bottom. On Christmas Day, he wakes several times and finds himself caught in increasingly weird scenarios which make him confront his actions and make some big decisions.

Metro.co.uk recently caught up with the actor to talk about the episode and, asked whether he thought it was a risky way of telling such a prominent episode, he pondered: ‘There’s a lot of things that you read and feel are a risk but it’s not really our job to criticise or fight that – you just have to service that story as best you can.

‘It’s very risky – it’s a Christmas Day episode for a start – there’ll be a lot of people watching. It’s very different to anything that we have ever done. There are three acts to it. The first sees Robert keep waking up and the day keeps resetting like Groundhog Day or The Edge Of Tomorrow. He keeps trying to get to the end but he can’t and the end is basically Aaron and various things happen in between. It is quite funny at times and there’s a cameo from a much loved character which I hope people will love seeing.’

He added modestly: ‘It is very different and obviously I am in it quite a lot so I was worried that people might hate it but we just hope that people enjoy it.’

Fans can see the special episode of Emmerdale on Christmas Day at 5:50pm on ITV.